First Looks: Nokia X7 – Sexy Slice of Symbian Anna

Silver Stealth Fighter

The Nokia X7 is one cool-looking phone. Hardware has always been one of Nokia’s strong suits and they continue this tradition with the sleek and futuristic design of the X7. Its sharp angles and little grill accents remind us of a silver stealth fighter jet. You might think that the X7 has four speakers because of the grills, but it’s only the two at the bottom that actually have them.

It’s a refreshing take on touchscreen phone design which has usually been clones of the iPhone. In your hand it feels really solid and well-built, since there is virtually no plastic involved in its construction. It reminds us very much of the build quality of HTC mobile phones. On top you have the 3.5mm headphone jack and a micro-USB port which serves as the charger as well as the data transfer port. This makes it much more flexible when it comes to charging, especially if you misplace your charger or you just plain don’t have it on you.

Another hardware highlight is its 4-inch AMOLED touch screen, which is wonderful to behold. Its contrast and saturation are comparable to Samsung’s Galaxy S II. The colors really pop out and despite the relatively low resolution (360 x 640), videos and pictures are nice and sharp. Which is just as well, since Nokia is positioning this as an “entertainment” phone.

Meet Anna

Of course, the main attraction here is the new “Anna” update to Nokia’s Symbian mobile OS. You have three home screens with six spaces each for shortcuts and widgets, just like in Symbian^3, but scrolling through them is much quicker now. You don’t have to do a full swipe to switch between them like before, and it makes the phone feel quite snappy. The icons have a more rounded shape and are more brightly colored, much like the ones on the Meego-powered N9. Tapping on the upper right hand corner of the screen opens up a convenient notifications window, which also includes connectivity options and more detailed battery information.